Avalanche forwards Patrick Bordeleau and Cody McLeod are not looking over their shoulders worried about job security. They know their teammates and, most important, the decision-makers running the team think highly of them.

As long as they don't skate away from a check, play a simple, responsible style in all three zones and help deter anybody from roughing up the Avs' stars, they are among the NHL's safest fourth-line forwards in terms of job security.

That's because of their job title: enforcer.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Bordeleau will fight anyone the Avs ask him to in order to protect less physical teammates. The 6-2, 210-pound McLeod will square off with anyone too afraid to trade blows with Bordeleau.

"You have to be able to play the game and not just fight," McLeod said. "(Fighting) is a little bit in the back of your mind, but compared to like 10 years ago, you're not thinking three nights before who you're playing and who you're going to fight."

They risk a physical beating, such as being punched in the face, and they can't afford to nurse injuries by not finishing body checks. But, as long as they play their role, they'll have a job, which is why they regard fighting as being integral to hockey, despite the physical punishment.

"You have to keep the guys honest. That's why fighting is there, and I don't think you can take that out of the game," Bordeleau said. "It's like how Bobby Orr said, 'If there wasn't fighting back in the day, the game would be disgusting.' If there is no fighting, what are you going to do, crosscheck a guy in the face instead? That's why I think it will never disappear."

McLeod, 29, is in the middle of a three-year contract extension that pays him $1.15 million annually, and Bordeleau, 27, signed a three-year extension last summer that's worth $3 million.

And in today's NHL — unlike years ago when teams employed designated "goons," whose only job was mixing it up — fighters on the opposing team get regular shifts too. There's no place to hide.

"I had to learn to fight to stay in the (game), especially the NHL, and you work on your skill game after," McLeod said. "Each year you have to keep getting better and there's always going to be room for a guy on a team that can fight and play. If you look around the league, the better teams all have third- and fourth-line guys that can drop the mitts and play."

Bordeleau is a good skater, has above-average stick-handling skills and has a long reach.

"I'd like to think I can play hockey a little bit, and these days, the fighting in the game isn't the same," Bordeleau said. "Back in the day, you had a guy that fights and played just three shifts a game and not be able to help your team win a hockey game by being physical, chipping the puck in, being a defensive player or whatever.

"I think the (old-school enforcers) are disappearing slowly but surely, and I think the new breed called 'fighters' are going to be, I'd like to think myself and Jared Boll in Columbus and (Zac) Rinaldo in Philly. Those are the new breed of fighters, that can play hockey and are really tough too."

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.